Tuesday, September 19, 2017

As promised here is the 600th book review I’ve
posted on Amazon earlier today:

I
read this book via an Amazon-US KINDLE Unlimited download.

As
young, urban boys who sometimes have nothing do except occasionally commit some
mischief, Justin Ventimiglia and Keith Puccio got involved with and got picked
up performing an act of property destruction. Naturally, these two juveniles
had to be taught that they need to pay for what they’ve done, and the St. Louis
authorities felt the best way would be to give them summer jobs at the Prairie
Winds Golf Course on the east side of town.

The
story this book contains is a coming of age one as these two protagonists
experience a life outside of the dysfunctional one they’ve become used to
living in. The shenanigans of the eccentric adults with their drinking,
gambling and smoking they witness causes them to have some interesting
reactions. This creates a somewhat special bond between all involved.

When
you throw in a young man fighting the dreaded disease of cancer into the mix,
you get an emotionally touching story of life and death, as Justin and Keith
begin to have an understanding of the tests life can throw in front of you
along with the love for the game of golf itself with the challenges it gives to
those who play it.

While
this book seems geared to those who are golfers, it’s a story which can be
enjoyed by anyone. Although this book reads like a stand-alone, it’s the second
part of the six-book series [Prairie Winds Golf Course] written by the author,
James Ross.

For
having given his readers, this poignant coming of age story, I’ve given Mr.
Ross 5 STARS for his endeavor here.

Things have been happening since my
last report. To begin with I finally got around to submitting the revised edited
manuscript for my debut romance novel, a MG/YA Paranormal, “I Kissed a Ghost” to
CreateSpace. Now, hopefully on Friday I’ll be told the inner is now finished
and we can move on to the next step. If all goes well, I’d like to see my book
becoming available within three weeks.

This morning I’ve hit ANOTHER
MILESTONE > > > > I’ve posted my 600th review on Amazon.
So, I’d like to invite everyone to check out my reviews and perhaps you’ll find
your next book to read or give as a gift.

With my “I Kissed a Ghost” on its way
to see the light of day, I’ve started to return to the writing of my two WIPs.
So far I’ve just ran a Grammar/SpellCheck on the two manuscript with the update
versions of MicroSoft Word which came with my new computer, and now I’ve got to
decide which one I’m going to work on first. The thing is I’m in no rush since
I need to raise the funds to get it self-published and therefore I’ve got to do
some intense promotional activities for all of my books.

After
a slight miscommunication with CreateSpace about submitting my completed
revised manuscript for my debut romance novel, a MG/YA Paranormal entitled
“I Kissed a Ghost,” I wanted to send it in. However, when I went to the perfectly
fine saved file and opened it I saw it had been corrupted. Instead of just
seeing the actual manuscript, I saw it along with all the changes which I made
from the suggestions the line editor gave me to improve the original one. I
became frantic trying to undo what had occurred, it took almost two weeks to
correct this situation, which wound up being this past Wednesday [09/13/17]. On
Friday, with a clear head, I slowly reviewed each page, making sure no glitches
had remained.

On
Thursday, I finally wrote the copyright, dedication and my other endeavors
pages; adding in the appropriate blank pages. On Friday, once I was satisfied
that all is well with the manuscript I’d worked so hard to revise, I contacted
those supportive folks at CreateSpace to help me in getting all the comments
connected to the manuscript got removed. With this last step, and making sure
one last time that I had no more issues with my manuscript, I followed their
instructions to send it to them.

Now,
I’ve got patiently wait to them to finish setting up the interior of the
revised book, so I can move on to the next step for the re-release of this
book.

Saturday, September 16, 2017

I found this brief book to
be precisely as the author has written for her description; the truth being
said, it’s not only inspirational, but quite poignant as well. The problem is too many people set their
personal HEA [Happy Ever After] too high, which only results in one
disappointment after another; people need to know what both their assets and
negative attributes are to really fulfill their heart’s desire, which usually
involves getting married at long last.

Personally, I married at 43
to my dear OH, aged 39. I knew what my limitations were; a slight speech
imperfection and a genetic condition affected my physical appearance,
especially my facial appearance. But one day, I found someone who could look beyond
all this and to the personal I’m like on the inside; in fact, both of us looked
at each of our personalities and compatibilities more than anything else, much
like the author herself.

The only negative thing I
can say about her book is that I feel she’s targeted her reading audience
towards women. We’ve got to recognize and remember that there are scores of men
who are still suffering the same way, downtrodden that they’re still living
alone, and might benefit from reading the book themselves.

Every book should have a
playlist which can accompany it, and this book is no exception. While for this
book most people would think of Dean Martin’s “Everybody Loves Somebody”, there’s
another song which he sang “Somewhere There’s a Someone” which I feel far more epitomizes
what this book is trying to communicate. Here are the lyrics, see if you agree
with how I feel:

Somewhere there's a someone
for everyone

Somewhere there's a someone
for me

Though I may be lonely now

I'll see it through somehow

To someone's heart I know I
hold the key

Somewhere there's a someone
for everyone

Somewhere there's a someone
for me

And I'll search my whole
life through

Until I find a love that's
true

For I know somewhere there's
a someone for me

(Somewhere)

(Somewhere)

And I'll search my whole
life through

Until I find a love that's
true

For I know somewhere there's
a someone for me

For I know somewhere there's
a someone for me

For wanting to share her
story and to help others to get out of the rut they’re in, I’m happy to give
Lori A. Peters and her book 5 STARS.

Friday, September 15, 2017

Yesterday, at long last, I’d finally
been above to resolve the issues I’d been having with the re-edited manuscript
for my debut MG/YA Paranormal romance novel, “I Kissed a Ghost.” I’d finished
making the suggestions made by the line editor I’d gotten from CreateSpace, and
I wanted to take about three days to rest. When I came back and opened the
file, the document was in shambles; the manuscript was there, as were all the
deletions and additions in blue. Despite all my efforts in trying to return to
workable file I could format and send off to CreateSpace to prepare the
interior of the book, I got nowhere.

I finally got a friend and good neighbor
to help me out, since I was almost a month behind schedule in re-releasing the
book. She carefully copied the entire manuscript and then pasted it into a new
file, and it worked; and I was busy for several hours making sure each page was
correct, saving it several times along the way. I don’t know what she did,
because I’d tried doing the same thing a few times; but without much success. I
finished reviewing the formatting of the entire manuscript shortly after
midnight.

After I woke up this morning and had a
mug of my morning Joe, black and sweet I sat down to write the copyright, my
other endeavors, and dedication pages. Now, all I’ve got to do is to wait for
the offices of CreateSpace to open, so they can help me remove all the comments
left by the line editor which still exist on the document.

With only approving the print copy and
KINDLE conversion left to do, this endeavor is now practically out of my way.

When I get into situations where I
can’t move forwards on any of my writing endeavors, for whatever the reason, I
switch into writing book reviews; and since my last update I’ve written eight
with one more being done later today. Right now I’ve got 593 reviews written
under my belt on Amazon-US and elsewhere, here’s the link if anyone is
interested in reading any of them:

This morning I found a fantasy romance
short story I’d written over two years which I’ve started to edit, and making
it a bit erotic at the same time. I’ve now got two writing endeavors left to
finish under this name to finish; with the rate of my writing depended on how
fast I can raise the necessary funds to get the endeavor self-published.

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

When
I got married it was relatively late in my life, I was 43, and my dear OH was
four years younger. We felt it was too late to start having children, besides I
suffer from a genetic condition which we didn’t want to pass onto any children
we might have had. But, after reading this highly inspirational book, I now
feel we should have not fostered but adopted a young age-appropriate child for
parents our age; especially since neither one of us any real family to speak
of. I’ve got a sister and a handful of cousins, and my OH has a couple of
cousins, none of whom we really talk to.

I, in fact we all can see and can image
a couple adopting one or two children, but the couple, Jo Ann and Dan Wentzel
had amazing 75 children, frequently eight at a time and mainly teen aged boys. Those
of you who have had children especially boys know what a handful it is to raise
one or two of them; so, you can just imagine the fortitude and patience these
two must have possessed to raise blended family and brew this size.

Those who read this book need to thank
this couple for sharing their experiences of actually being a foster parent.
What they’d discovered had been doing this successfully all came down to what
family subtleties are needed to raise them and to have a family which come
close to a natural family as possible.

This includes changing their mental
attitude of family from the dysfunctional one they’ve been accustomed to living
in. And once these children have reacclimated to a more normal family
environment, they can return to their birth family with a new outlook for their
lives and family they’d been born into. Hopefully, if the time these children
had spent with the Wentzels, or in fact any foster family, has been successful
this newly acquire attitude can be passed on to their children; and not the
dysfunctional one they came from which would only perpetuate the situation into
the next generation.

Along the way in sharing their story,
the Wentzles share their various and at times quite different parenting methods,
in the hopes others might benefit from in the raising of their own children; and
that. perhaps after reading this book others might consider the joys of
fostering children of their own/

Given what this couple has been willing
to share with others, how can you not give this book the 5 STARS, I’m giving
it.

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

I know it’s been almost three weeks
since my last update, but nothing important has transpired since then.

I’m still waiting for CreateSpace to
approve the interior design for the re-edited version of my debut romance
novel, a MG/YA Paranormal entitled “I Kissed a Ghost.” Prior to my starting the
re-editing process the book had received an average of 4.1 STARS based on 26
reviews. Once they approve it, I’ve got to format the interior: single spacing,
chapter starting positions, making sure the margins for each line is properly
justified, etc. I also need to make sure the prior pages to the actual story
have all the correct information I want it to have. I then need to get my proof
copy, after I approve it’s time for the KINDLE conversion, and the start of my
almost non-stop promoting for it, which I currently believe would be towards
the end of this month.

Right now, I’m aggressively pursuing my
reading/reviewing of book as I’d fallen behind so much I would up reducing my
original goal of doing 200 books by the end of the year on GoodReads down to
150 from 200.

Besides this, I need to allow my
erotic side to pursue her writing endeavors, one of which is a serialized
GLBT/BDSM erotic short story/novella.

Monday, September 4, 2017

As
children, we’ve been taught to listen to our parents and to do everything they
tell say us. We know how much they love us and they won’t do anything to hurt
us. One of these things concerns tattling on someone else who did something
they shouldn’t have done, because doing it wouldn’t be a nice thing to do.

But
what happens when a relative, like Uncle Bob, starts doing something he shouldn’t
and tell us to keep it a secret even from our parents. This is what Suzy has to
deal with in this brief story when he starts touching her in places she somehow
feels is wrong; she becomes scared and doesn’t want to get in trouble for
tattling on her uncle to her parents.

This
creates a conflict in her young mild since her parents had also taught her that
if something is bothering her she should come to them. When she tells her
friend Lucy what’s happening, Lucy’s older brother tells Suzy to tell her
parents and that she wouldn’t get into trouble. Suzy follows his advice, tells
her parents who respond by sitting down and talking to her about what Uncle Bob
did to her.

Inappropriate
touching is a sensitive, everyday occurring issue which parents need to discuss
with their young child, and this book serves as marvelous beginning from which this
discuss can begin. The book then gives parents ideas as to how to go about
doing this. For trying to help parents, especially first-time young parents, in
dealing with this important, sensitive issue, there’s no way I can’t give Ms.
Jackson 5 STARS for her endeavor here.

Sunday, September 3, 2017

While
the premise of this picture book is to teach your young early reader child
nerdy geeky techie words might sound a bit LUDICROUS, in reality, it’s a
TOTALLY SOUND IDEA.

Kids
today are far more technically savvy than their parents, and even more so when
I [being a child of the 1950’s] was at their age. If there’s any doubt just
look at the way they’re able to easily grasp the knowledge needed to use the
internet.

Parents
are supposed to nurture their children’s intelligence by giving things which
challenges the ability to do things, such as the simple task of reading a book.
These days learning the three R’s of, Reading, ‘Riting, and ‘Rithmetic is no
longer enough, as they need to be tech savvy as well; I believe this book can
serve as one of their first steps in facing the futuristic world they’ve been
born into and I’ve given Kady Dash 5 and this book 5 STARS for trying to
accomplish this end.

About Me

I’m
a retired NYCity employee who’s been married for 22 sans
children.“I Kissed a Ghost”, a YA
[Young Adult] Paranormal/Time Travel/First Kiss romance, is my debut romance novel which got released in December 2012.

On December 1, 2014 - I released my second book, "Micro Fiction - An Anthology"

I’m in the process of writing several books:

An adult Contemporary with
a paranormal element running through parts of the storyline entitled “His
Darkest Secret." A MG/YA Urban Fantasy novella titled "The Secret of the Well" which is a stand-alone sequel to my first book.

In August of 2014, I began my 2nd second career, that of a Book Reviewer, As of July 8, 2016 I've read/reviewed 333 books, and my Amazon Reviewer Ranking is 4,662. I must be doing something right.